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What is Becoming?
Victorious
Grim Veteran
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an03/an03.076.than.html
Becoming is a essential part of the DO!(?)
But what is it exactly?
Can anybody give asimple real life example please?
Any thoughts/references would be welcome.
/Victor
And, eh, how do you spell it?
Becoming is a essential part of the DO!(?)
But what is it exactly?
Can anybody give asimple real life example please?
Any thoughts/references would be welcome.
/Victor
And, eh, how do you spell it?
0
Comments
Happiness arises and falls.
Out of ignorance we grasp thus suffer.
Out of wisdom we see how things are. Arising and falling. Thus no need to grasp, no need to suffer.
Becoming will always be, but the relationship is what changes.
Thus samsara and nirvana are only seperated by wisdom of clear seeing.
Look into the mirror in meditation
and eventually you will see a different face from your own staring back at you,
followed by another, and another, and another...
until you see the long line of the thousands of people, male and female, all races, all ages, all languages, all over the world that arose and fell...
and what they learned...
what they became.
They were in a process of becoming...
you.
My advanced practitioner friend at 70 struck an impossibly balanced yoga pose that I could never even have done at 17.
"Pretty good, huh?" she asked smiling "I studied no yoga in this life, only in my last life! So practice!" she laughed like a teenager, "practice!"
You once were they, that long line of people staring back from the mirror,
and yet eventually you grew beyond each of them, beyond all of them,
to become the you that you are now,
just as eventually you will grow from here,
likewise becoming...
until such time that you will grow even beyond "you" altogether.
Some people believe that Buddhism must be
all about the emptiness of empty space and annihilation.
Buddhism is not about the emptiness of empty space and annihilation,
but about the fullness of growth, of becoming...
just as time and space transcended
becomes the Light.
Afflicted by contact,
it calls disease a "self,"
for by whatever means it construes [anything],
that becomes otherwise from that.
Becoming otherwise,
the world is
held by becoming
afflicted by becoming
and yet delights
in that very becoming.
Where there's delight,
there is fear.
What one fears
is stressful.
This holy life is lived
for the abandoning of becoming.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/ud/ud.3.10.than.html
There is yet another teaching the understanding of which helps in the understanding of death. It is the Truth of Becoming or bhava, which is a corollary to the Truth of Change or anicca.
Becoming, or bhava, is also one of the factors in the scheme of Dependent Origination. The Truth of Becoming, like the Truth of Change, applies to everything. While the Truth of Change states that nothing is permanent but is ever-changing, the Truth of Becoming states that everything is always in the process of changing into something else.
Not only is everything changing, but the nature of that change is a process of becoming something else, however short or long the process may be. Briefly put, the Truth of Becoming teaches us that: "Nothing is, but is becoming." A ceaseless becoming is the feature of all things. A small plant is always in the process of becoming an old tree. There is no point of time at which anything is not becoming something else.
In truth there are no beings or self since everything is in a state of flux/becoming.
/Victor
All talk about the absolute truth (that which is naturally pure) is futile.
This is the gateless gate; the dharma-door of non-duality.
Just do the dishes.
If you meditate, you will see what it is.
Anything else, is just candy. Tasty perhaps but ultimately dissatisfying.
Best wishes,
Abu
@Jeffrey: Could you illustrate please?
@Floating_Abu. But I am stuck now in meditation. I need to evolve my understanding. Or could you recomend an exercise to get there?
Thus your description sounded to me more like the 1st link of ignorance. Does that make sense? That is to say I felt you correctly *described* ignorance NOT that your description *was* ignorant,,, hopefully there wasn't a miscommunication of the second.
And I am sure Ignorance is there as well since the DO nodes are all connected to each other.
But what I mean was that just before there is a sense of ego there must be something to reflect it. That is there must be a percieved seperation of the world and the ego... I dont know. Just thinking out aloud.
/Victor
So I think the sense that we get from this misunderstanding is suffering. When we are eating the cake that is the becoming. But the sense of ego from that is suffering. We are frustrated it has 'become' the moment of getting the cake, but we are dissapointed because the experience is impermanent and until we let go it is suffering. I think you are exactly correct that there is a sense of ego. If there is no ego then we wouldn't get the suffering sense.
It always seems odd to non-buddhist to hear these examples. Why is cake suffering? Why is the vacation being over suffering? It isn't unless there is ignorance -> craving -> becoming -> death... there is no suffering in cake.. or christmas or whatever. Imagine how a kid feels when there sibling *takes* away their cake or their toy? Now that is some suffering ahah. Which relates to another odd teaching in buddhism: children are not innocent. They don't have rigid entrrenched developed egos like adults,, all the ways and fortifications. You know an adult has a sneakier way of acting when they don't get there way. But the kid already has that ignorance and even though they are innocent in a sense they still suffer.
Battery is getting low!
There is thinking, no thinker
There is hearing, no hearer
There is seeing, no seer
In thinking, just thoughts
In hearing, just sounds
In seeing, just forms, shapes and colors.
What we tend to do is; we place concepts on top of concepts and hope that this will ultimately clear things up. But it really is a way of getting alienated.
You started whit asking. What is becoming?
I think that one way of looking at that is to say that “you”, “me” and the myriad things “become” when we name them. Before we do that there’s just this one thing (for which there obviously is no name).
After we add words and concepts there is the relative world in which we do well or not and in which things are desirable or not. And there are many more distictions to make.
My understanding of zen-practice is that I try to stay in that undevided, unnamed, natural state of mind a little bit more. Not adding words concepts and preferences to what is. Just staying with it, without doing anything about it and without identitfying with it.
I’m not saying I’m good at it, but it’s my practice.
The question is not 'the question' though. The question is the desire to find that peace. And that desire comes through time, through patience ie the satisfaction of that desire so to speak.
The problem, if I may call it that, of internet forums is it is like a child learning to play a new sport. One person says this, another that, all describing the method of theory when all along, the boy (or girl) just had to keep going - keep practicing.
It is hard in Buddhism sometimes but what is really hard about it? It is our impatience, our desires, our willingness to quench the thirst that cannot yet be quenced.
And that is all fine, and good.. But as some other poster on here often says, it does require patience and some determination.
Meditation is not an overnight sport, it is part of the Eightfold Path and also one requiring a steady consistency, I believe. At essence the teachings are not that hard, be kind, try to be responsible as a person, and do your meditation practice. There are various instructions on the internet depending on your tradition but the essence of the path is the 8Fold, as simple as that may seem.
Perhaps a real life center that offers a progressive, steady schedule and qualified teacher might also be able to help. Internet discussions (like my raff) can help but they can also be confusing when you listen to so many versions.
Just one more opinion
Well wishes,
Abu
When we have craving there is some point where we always want to 'have' the object as separate from ourselves sort of some kind of champion with our spoils. One way to transform craving is through mindfulness. In having the thing we go into the feeling and the senses. If you succeed at that it gets to be an ego loss just like the loud noise. Only problem is that it is a lot of suffering to have these little experiments with craving. So though we realize the third noble truth that we can just drop the 'having' and expand into being the senses and ego death. That experience is so scary that we need our connection to the nourishment of dharma, the eightfold path and fourth noble truth.
Ajahn Pasanno & Ajahn Amaro
this should clear everything up.
this should clear everything up.
This extract from SN12.2 might be helpful in understanding the process:
"Now what is aging and death? Whatever aging, decrepitude, brokenness, graying, wrinkling, decline of life-force, weakening of the faculties of the various beings in this or that group of beings, that is called aging. Whatever deceasing, passing away, breaking up, disappearance, dying, death, completion of time, break up of the aggregates, casting off of the body, interruption in the life faculty of the various beings in this or that group of beings, that is called death.
"And what is birth? Whatever birth, taking birth, descent, coming-to-be, coming-forth, appearance of aggregates, & acquisition of [sense] media of the various beings in this or that group of beings, that is called birth.
"And what is becoming? These three are becomings: sensual becoming, form becoming, & formless becoming. This is called becoming.
"And what is clinging/sustenance? These four are clingings: sensuality clinging, view clinging, precept & practice clinging, and doctrine of self clinging. This is called clinging.
"And what is craving? These six are classes of craving: craving for forms, craving for sounds, craving for smells, craving for tastes, craving for tactile sensations, craving for ideas. This is called craving.
- Lord Buddha
Loka Sutta